Tag Archives: unassisted childbirth

Looks like @DeepSouthDoula is the winner of cool tweets, part 2. I’ll have to tell her the amazing news, LoL! Looks like there will have to be a part 3 tonight. Henci Goer has already made some great points, and she’s only just gotten started! w00t!! Here’s the link to part 1 if you missed that post.

Preparing4Birth: #ICAN2011 @ICANtweets Insurance company should not mandate how doc works. Write congressman. A state issueThis is HUGE. I was aggravated to learn from my OB that his malpractice insurance doesn’t cover vaginal breech delivery. He’s an older doctor, so of course, he knows how to do it. I think it is incredibly unfair that my second birth was dictated by someone else’s friggin’ insurance!!!

Ethologicmom#ICAN2011 amazing that dice didn’t realize that women choose or are forced into hbacmom by bans and lack of support!Dice? I have no idea. But yes, women increasingly choose homebirth and unassisted birth because they ultimately feel unsupported by some (or all) careproviders. A woman who feels forced into homebirth or unassisted birth are not ideal candidates for those settings. A woman should have access to the care she desires. We’re the ones paying for it!!!

DeepSouthDoula Any person pregnant or not has the right to refuse medical treatment – even in an emergency. Goes for refusing CS. #ICAN2011One of my friends is having her 3rd VBAC after cesarean. We were performing out of town, and she thought the local hospital didn’t allow VBACs. She was relieved to learn (from me . . . yay me!) that she did NOT have to consent to a cesarean if she had the misfortune of going into labor in that town. On the other hand, it would have been an opportunity for us to ‘educate’ that particular hospital on the rights of childbearing women!;)

DeepSouthDoula Have the NIH & ACOG statements ready & use them to our advantage. #ICAN2011Great advice! I’m on Spring Break right now, and honestly, I’m just now getting around to reading the NIH VBAC Consensus report. Eye opening, really. I’ve “clipped” out the conclusion summary and points within the detailed section of the statement that directly apply to my situation or to issues that seem most critical to me. I will be bringing some of this information with me as I interview an OB regarding VBA2C.

DeepSouthDoula SHARE – ORGANIZE – PROMOTE – CHANGE. Make connections through social media. #ICAN2011Following the #ICAN2011 channel has shown me that a lot of birthies are now quite active on twitter. I guess I’ll pay more attention to twitter . . . at least for a while. Birthies and moms are welcome to request to follow me – @labortrials.

Unassisted birth (UC, UB) seems like an all or nothing adventure. “Either you’re in or you’re out,” says Heidi Klum of Project Runway. No smile. Somewhat smug too. I’m trying to sort out my feelings about UC because even though it’s not something I’m likely to do, it is a birth choice and therefore should be studied at the very least. I read a lot of unassisted birth posts/forums and have gained so much knowledge and strength from it. I wish I had that kind of confidence and peace.

So, like I said, it seems like UC is an all or nothing thing. Most care providers (CP) won’t continue to see you for prenatals if they know you’re planning a UC. (Maybe that’s not universally true, but that’s the impression I’m getting.) And if you decide to have a UC then it also means that you’re providing immediate care for your newborn. That seems a lot to ask of myself much less my husband.

My feelings on care providers seem to change by the second. One minute I’m ok midwife only. Then I’m ok with planning for homebirth and hospital birth simultaneously. And then I’m ok with MW and ‘shadow care.’ And then these plans seem so unsatisfactory in different ways.

The only ‘universal’ is that I want to have this baby as ‘naturally’ as possible. But I still don’t have any idea how to accomplish this.

I have lots of wishes for me and our baby. I want it all, and none of it seems like having it all because ‘having it all’ was stolen from me in 2004 with that first cut. I know even that is still just a perception, not a ‘truth,’ but for me it feels like a ‘truth.’

Ideally, I would continue prenatal care with someone – the midwife or OB, whatever.

Ideally, I would birth this baby with my husband and maybe a close friend or two but no one acting as a ‘care provider.’

Following is a notice from Lynn Griesemer, a birth advocate and author of the Your Body, Your Birth CD which was reviewed for the Spring issue of ICAN’s the Clarion which is due out this month.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I will be interviewed by Lesly Federici, former Labor and Delivery Room Nurse on her program this Friday, March 7, 2:00-3:00pm EST www.blogtalkradio.com/usmilemom. If you cannot listen to the program live, you can access the show at any time after that by going to the website.

I expect that we will be spending the entire hour discussing childbirth and in particular unassisted homebirth – giving birth without a doctor or midwife. Whether you agree or disagree with the topic of unassisted homebirth, I hope you will listen to the show because I plan on sharing many secrets for having a successful birth experience and why the way we birth is so important to femininity, families, society and civilization.

—–Mother of six, Author of UNASSISTED HOMEBIRTH: AN ACT OF LOVE and YOUR BODY, YOUR BIRTH: SECRETS FOR A SATISFYING AND SUCCESSFUL BIRTH. During the past six months I was featured in the Washington Post and appeared on PBS “To the Contrary” and a WJLA news story on Unassisted Homebirth.

“The baby could be born in a breach [sic] position, or with the umbilical cord
wrapped around its neck. The mother could suffer from significant tearing or
from a maternal hemorrhage and bleed to death in as little as five
minutes.”

I think it’s very important to address the statement that a woman can hemorrhage and bleed to death in as little as five minutes. This is a very horrifying comment for a doctor to make and, for anyone who doesn’t really know birth, it could be enough to send them running for the hospital.

First of all, yes, it’s possible to hemorrhage and bleed to death quickly in birth IF YOU HAVE A SURGICAL WOUNDING. Women die from bleeding in cesareans and with episiotomies. The closest to death that I have ever seen a woman in childbirth was in a hospital birth where the ob/gyn cut an episiotomy, pulled the baby out quickly with forceps and then left the family doctor to repair the poor woman. We were skating in the blood on the floor and desperately trying to get enough I.V. fluids into her to save her life while the family doctor tried to suture the episiotomy wound as fast as he could. I have never seen anything like that in a home birth setting or a hospital birth that didn’t involve cutting.

Think about it – would any midwife ever go to a homebirth if it was possible for the mother to die from bleeding in five minutes? I know I wouldn’t go if that could happen. We had a visit here in Vancouver BC from an ob/gyn from Holland back in the 1980’s. Dr. Kloosterman was the head of Dutch maternity services for many years and he was a real friend to homebirth and midwifery. He told us that you have AN HOUR after a natural birth before the woman will be in trouble from bleeding. Does this mean that you wait for an hour to take action with a bleeding woman? No, of course not. If there’s more blood than is normal, you need to call 911 and transport to the hospital within the hour, but you’re not going to have a maternal death before an hour is up. I have had 10 transports for hemorrhage in the many homebirths that I have attended (over 1000). Two women have required transfusions. The other 8 recovered with I. V. fluids, rest and iron supplements. Of course, no one wants to see blood transfusions in this day and age. We also don’t like to see a woman anemic after having a baby because it makes the postpartum time very difficult. The most important action after having a baby is to keep the mother and baby skin to skin continuously for at least the first 4 hours.

What doctors won’t tell you is that the most severe cases of postpartum anemia are in women who have had cesareans. Major abdominal surgery results in anemia. I have a friend who is a pharmacist in a hospital. He spends most of his days trying to figure out individual plans to help cesarean moms get their hemoglobin counts up. He finds these cases of severe anemia in post operative mothers very distressing.

I hope this information is helpful to you.

As far as the other nonsense this person is trying to frighten you with:

1. Significant tearing—if you look with a mirror at your vulva after birth and there seems to be skin that “flaps” away from the rest of the vulva structures, you can always go into the emergency ward and have someone suture the wound. Tears do not bleed like cuts do. This should not dissuade anyone from staying away from the place where the scalpels reside.

2. Breech position—you’ll know if your baby is breech. When the membranes release, you will see black meconium coming out the consistency of toothpaste. With a head first baby, the meconium colours the water green or brown but with a breech, the meconium is being squeezed directly out without mixing with water. The other way that you should suspect a breech presentation is if you have a feeling from about 34 weeks of pregnancy on that you have “a hard ball stuck in your ribs”. Breech presentations are about 3 percent of births.

3. Cord wrapped around the neck—the smart babies put their cords around their necks to keep them out of trouble. If you have a baby with the cord around the neck, it can be unwrapped very easily either during or right after the birth. The most important thing is to keep the cord intact.